HEMP

As heart-friendly seeds and oil or dairy-free ‘milk’, this age-old crop has shaken off its hippy reputation to enter the mainstream

What’s the deal with…

PHOTO: ISTOCK

WHAT IS IT?

Hemp, also known as Cannabis Sativa, has a cultivation history going back at least 10,000 years; it’s been used to make fabric, paper and, recently, eco-friendly cars. Laws passed in North America in the 1930s lumped hemp in with the narcotic marijuana (same species, different plant) so production was halted, but farming continued in parts of Europe and China.